


Pair of Kings

by panthershabit



Category: Avengers: Endgame - Fandom, Black Panther (2018), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Coping, F/M, M/M, Multi, Not Beta Read, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Pre-Slash, Regret
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-02-07
Packaged: 2019-10-22 12:58:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17663087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panthershabit/pseuds/panthershabit
Summary: Thor has nothing left. No people to protect, no friends to be with and no family to turn to. But before he goes, T'Challa shows him that he won't be lonely forever. Not on his watch.





	Pair of Kings

**Author's Note:**

> I've always wanted to write Thorlla/T'Chor, and promised my followers on my old Tumblr blog that I would. After seeing the tag get a new work from manic_intent, I finally got the motivation to finish the work, so here it is :)
> 
> Kudos and feedback are always appreciated.
> 
> Also...I'm awful at writing Thor's dialogue so head's up...

Thor only heard muffles around him as if he had been caught in an explosion but in reality, it was to shut out the possibility of him becoming jealous of his peers - something he could not forgive himself for after recent events. They deserved to be happy, even if there was an impossibility of him feeling the same. Of course, saving the world and returning everything back to how it was was most certainly a good thing and deserved the celebrations but at the same time, none of that played in the God of Thunder's favor. His land and kingdom of Asgard were burned down to ashes before his very eyes - one of which didn't belong to him - and there was no turning back. 

His closest friends, Heimdall and Valkyrie had given their lives to end all of this and because of the timing of their contributions for the fight against Thanos, not even Captain Marvel could save them as undoing their acts of nobility would make all of this impossible. They  _had_  to die, and as horrible as Thor felt for feeling it, he found it unfair. Miek and Korg were able to be salvaged from the ruins of war but they belonged to their own planets, Thor couldn't ask them to be away from their homes for even longer just to coddle him.

And then there was Loki.  _Loki_. His brother. 

No words could describe the emptiness Thor felt knowing his brother was long gone and it twisted the knife further in his heart at the fact that Loki's last act was to sacrifice himself in an attempt to undo his wrong. The self-proclaimed 'God of Mischief' had shown his remorse growing over the years and that in itself proved Loki could have lived a new life for himself in which nobody doubted him or lacked any trust for what he had to say or do. But he wouldn't live that life, because Thor knew without the motivation of his brother's death, all of the events leading up to this lackluster victory would never have occurred.

But it was disrespectful on his part to not show happiness. So, he wore a faux smile and watched as Tony found his arms around Pepper, even if they both knew of the great sacrifice made for one of the stones. One thing that struck Thor was being aware of Tony's sacrifice, giving away the timeline of being a father to allow trillions of other fathers to be with their families. Steve was hugging Bucky tightly and Natasha the same with Bruce. He chuckled with a genuine sense of happiness for Bruce, he'd wished the man would eventually find happiness in a constant cycle of life revolving around anger and self-control. 

Sam was on the phone to someone - Thor heard the name 'Curt' repeated as he exclaimed his love for him - and the spaceman, Quill, he looked as if he'd seen a ghost when Gamora called out his name. Right before his eyes, everybody was getting their happy ending as he simply nodded and appeared happy for them. Which he was. There was no doubt in his mind that he was happy for everyone getting their happy ending, but happiness was definitely not what he could feel right now. Not as he remained so lonely in the world they'd just repaired.

As he looked on, the man he'd just met on the battlefield in the first fight slowly rose from the ground as a bald woman quickly ran to him and helped him up, exclaiming 'kumkani' over and over again. Thor gathered he was one of the ones to turn to dust, as he seemed shocked to be back where he was. Similar to how Groot had been confused about the place he was, and others who were taken to the world within the soul stone at the click of the Titan God's fingers. As the monarch stood on his homeland, he noticed the scale of destruction that had come to his home. It was definitely noticeable and would take some work to repair, but it hadn't reached Birnin Zana from the looks of it.

Thor approached him and grinned while he observed the others and thanked Okoye for his help. 

"I hadn't much of an opportunity to introduce myself when I arrived, I'm Thor. Son of Odinson, King of Asgard-"

"- _God of Thunder_?" 

Hearing the title made Thor chuckle and he expected that to be remembered of his status above all the other ways he was recognized.

"Ah, a fan," Thor quipped amusedly. "I believe you humans usually expect some form of signature when you see someone you look up to."

T'Challa raised an eyebrow and passed the comment off as a joke in his mind, extending an arm and shaking his hand. The Asgardian had a strong grip and smiled as T'Challa smiled at him.

"Not quite, though I am quite fond of your legacy. The stories I have heard about you and the work I have seen you done in this present time is most certainly interesting. I am T'Challa, Son of T'Chaka and King of Wakanda."

Royalty. That was something Thor longed for someone to able to relate to him on but an actual king made it better. Someone who knew the pressures of putting an entire kingdom before himself and the feeling of failure if even one person lost their life. The taller blonde man nodded and looked at T'Challa's damaged nation which pushed a sigh from him.

"Don't worry, T'Challa. I have seen a fallen kingdom and this is definitely not one of them, your people will bounce back from this."

As they walked through the uneven field, T'Challa felt uneasy as he pondered on the effects of allowing Wakanda to be used as the battlefield for the great war against Thanos. It wouldn't just involve rebuilding the damaged buildings, such as the Citadel, but also repairing the relationship he had with the people who trusted him to keep them safe. The monarch was more than aware of the situation he was in and all he could do was unearth sigh buried in his throat.

"I appreciate that, but I'm not so sure it's that simple. We remained an isolated nation under my father's watch for many years, and before his ruling that remained the same. I tried to do something different, to help the world, and now it has led to this. Many of M'Baku's men,  _my_ men, and the Dora Milaje, lost their lives to defend Vision from Thanos and his army. I know I've lost the trust of many people, but I hope they still have faith in me."

After walking for a handful of minutes, neither of them had noticed how they'd drifted away from the others and walked into the forests that T'Challa had been transformed into a pile of dust. A moment of silence gave T'Challa the opportunity to reflect on how he'd gone and everything he'd worried about after; the mental dispute of whether or not he had been wrong for using his nation as land to fight an enemy that hadn't concerned them, what was of his sister as he couldn't find her in the soul world and most importantly, the fate of Wakanda. Amid everything, he'd hoped everything had been worth it and that even if it had another ruler, Wakanda would not fall.

Thor knew of the feeling when it concerned someone losing their trust in him. Once he was banished from Asgard, he'd wondered how someone could do such a thing, especially his father, and that was one of the main reasons he hadn't given up on Loki. 

"I'm sure they know it wasn't an easy choice. I had to allow my world to be destroyed in order to stop my sister from going on a murderous spree, unleashing a fire demon upon it to end her reign of terror. I tried to reach out to her, change her mind, but the damage my father did was already too much for her to be saved."

Once Thor explained himself T'Challa felt a shared level of pain knowing how much it took to witness a family member die by their doing. Albeit different cases, nothing hurt more than feeling as if they had failed their own blood.

The breeze was harsh to both their skins and as the king of Wakanda reeled in the memories of his last location, Thor admired the beauty of the trees and stroked one with the edges of his fingertips.

"There is much history to these forests, isn't there?"

"More than I'd wish to think upon. But yes, there is."

T'Challa gazed at the nature that surrounded him and took a single, sharp breath hoping that the future history of the place he was standing in wouldn't be so morbid for him to reflect on.

"This is where I died, if you will. But it is not my first time having almost been wiped from the world I live in. Some time ago, about two years ago - well longer I guess given my missing status -, my cousin, N'Jadaka, threw me off a waterfall in pent up rage. Even if I was probably one of the only people in the world to offer him a chance to be heard, he only wanted to be feared. I had some time to think while I was wherever I was and all I could think about was how I'd tried to do what he did, but led to the destruction of Wakanda and the death of its people. He'd be turning in his grave if he saw what I did."

Noticing the king's frown and regretful eyes, Thor planted a firm hand on the monarch's shoulder and squeezed gently, comforting him.

"Don't knock yourself too hard about this. Your kingdom has not fallen, and its king is still alive. That's much more than what can be said for planets Thanos single-handedly destroyed. That bastard killed an entire population of Asgardians just to go along with his mission, and left me with nothing but vengeance in my heart."

T'Challa winced at the thought of everyone in Wakanda being killed and after that, deemed himself lucky not to be in the position of the man stood next to him. After Thor removed his hand from T'Challa's shoulder, it was almost as if T'Challa missed that slight sensation of pressure on his body to comfort him. The taller man was silent and T'Challa guessed it was his turn to be the supportive member of the 'kings' party.

"I'm sorry to hear of that. Do you have any family members or friends who may still be out there?"

Little did he know that mentioning the words 'family' and 'friends' stung Thor, even if the blonde monarch was aware it came from no malice.

"Apart from my sister, I only had one brother," Thor started, looking at T'Challa with a distressed expression. T'Challa realized he'd hit a sensitive subject, especially after  _'had'_  and listened to the man explain his tragic story. "His name was Loki. I promised to never give up on him, and I actually looked up to him. He felt like an outsider to our family, especially being of a different heritage than to myself. You may have heard of the incident in New York a few years ago."

T'Challa's frowned and he did remember what had happened to New York City back in 2012. He'd even been visiting the Wakandan Embassy when it happened and needless to say, the damage around the building was catastrophic. The building itself had been constructed with vibranium, secretly, so it took little damage and T'Challa aided his father in escorting people into the building as shelter.

"I do. That was of his doing?"

"Yes... _well_. Not exactly. He'd intended to take over the realm you mortals live in, as a way to spite me, but he wasn't aware of the true power of the Tesseract and fell under its influence. But he'd always wanted to rule, and his heart had been tainted before he held the Sceptre."

Thor's eyes dropped to the ground a few times but other than that the two never broke eye contact as Thor explained his brother's story. T'Challa connected with him on having a family member that fell victim to the path of vengeance, rightful ruling and the hardest part, dying before they could live the life they'd hunted for so long.

"N'Jadaka believed he was the rightful ruler of Wakanda. In his last moments, he finally saw the peace and beauty in a world pictured as a battlefield for him. Seeing the Wakandan sunset relieved him of the pressures he'd been given, but I cannot imagine how he felt once I returned. His family went behind his back to bring me back and dethrone him."

"Sometimes these things have to be done. It's not easy to take someone's life, especially not someone so close to you, but it means many more get to live their lives."

Neither of them had noticed how close they were to having a tear escape in memory of their fallen blood until it was silent. Thor sniffed and wiped the one eye that still worked whereas T'Challa merely cleared his throat.

"We should, uh, get back to the others. Try not to dwell on the past so much," Thor chuckled with a broken, but a genuine smile and T'Challa returned the expression. As they ambled back to the main field, a few of the Avengers had already started to board the twin Quinjets positioned on the grass. T'Challa continued to stare at the taller man and when the Asgardian's head turned to catch him in the act, he smiled with a confused expression. "Isn't it deemed rude to stare in your culture?"

"And what culture is that? Wakandan?"

"Mortal."

"Ah, right. And yes, please excuse my staring but I couldn't help but notice your eyes are different."

That had been partially honest, Thor's different eye colors were something he thought about but he'd also been admiring the God, certainly impressed seeing the real thing. What he'd hoped was that Thor wouldn't be aware but unfortunately for him, Thor knew exactly what it looked like when someone gazed at him and tried to make an excuse. It happened quite a lot on Asgard, and even more on Earth.

However, he didn't wish for T'Challa to feel embarrassed so he simply didn't bring it up.

"Yes, one of them was given to me by a talking raccoon. It's a story that seems impossible to tell without the doubt of its reality."

"You should tell it sometime."

His invitation didn't go unnoticed, no matter how subtle he tried to be.

"As much as I would love to, I think the best thing for me is to stay away from the rest of the universe."

Hearing that disappointed T'Challa and they watched as the young boy he'd seen at the airport and again in the soul stone world board the aircraft along with Sam, Bucky, and Steve. The three were more than happy to be reunited and Sam & Bucky, despite everything, couldn't hate Peter so they made sure he felt welcomed in the conversation. 

T'Challa strolled with Thor and they boarded the Quinjet to speak with Steve.

"Rogers."

Steve raised his arm and shook the God's hand, then the king's.

"Thor. T'Challa."

"Rogers," T'Challa said. "I assume everyone is back with those they lost?"

"They are. But I just wanted to say thank you, for everything. For using Wakanda for the battle, for trying to help Vision even though Thanos was after him, and especially for leading your tribes to help us. A majority of this victory is down to you, T'Challa. Even helping Bucky get his programming removed, I cannot thank you enough."

T'Challa smiled and accepted the acknowledgment. 

"I appreciate that, Steve. The world was at stake and you needed our help."

"Thor, I'm sorry to hear about Loki. I heard he died nobly, and no matter what he did all those years ago, it's a shame about what happened."

Thor appreciated that and nodded.

"Indeed. I guess this is goodbye, considering most of us just want a break?"

Thor wasn't referring to the larger group of superheroes about to leave Wakanda. He was referring to the first group, the original Avengers, who'd all grown to find that there had to be something else for them. Steve, Tony, Clint, Natasha, and Bruce all agreed that they would retire from this someday and now today was the day. If they were needed for something on that scale again, maybe, but for now they were all finished with saving the world.

"I guess it is. Until next time, Thor. 'Cos you know there will be a next time," Steve grinned and Thor shook his hand again before they left the Quinjet and the doors closed. They stood back as the engines whooshed and the Quinjets departed, leaving the two alone to themselves. Okoye had left to check on Shuri, who was hidden in the Golden City and protected by M'Baku and his men. So now they stood only with each other and Thor looked up at the sky.

For ten seconds, it remained mute and both men reflected on the day. Both of them knew they were victorious, even if it did not feel like it.

"Well, I supposed I'd better go now, leave you to your nation."

Thor lifted Stormbreaker and was ready to leave when T'Challa intervened.

"Wait," T'Challa asked softly. Thor halted and slowly turned his body to face him again.

"What is it?"

It wasn't clear to the Wakandan of what exactly it was he wanted to say. But instead of saying nothing, he said the first thing he could think of.

"Stay," T'Challa insisted. He'd only asked this of one other person, and it had not been successful. T'Challa hoped this time would be a different story.

Thor gave T'Challa a confused expression once he'd heard the word.

"Whatever for? Earth doesn't need me. And everyone who I cared for, who cared for me, is gone."

As Thor continued to stare at him he smiled at Thor with complete compassion.

"Not everyone."

Thor stole a glance at T'Challa and chuckled, noting on what T'Challa had said. Before he could object, T'Challa interrupted.

"And I did not mean Earth. I meant Wakanda."

Suddenly the God of Thunder was speechless and the king of Wakanda chose to elaborate.

"I think it would be good for you to spend some time here. Barnes found peace here and I am sure you would too."

It wasn't the worst idea in Thor's mind but he couldn't risk staying and blaming himself for the wreckage at the start. Even if the ones dusted returned, Thor only saw the remaining people and their time of anguish trying to garner a hope that their lost ones would return.

Looking around, it processed in the god's head that it was certainly a unique kingdom. It didn't look like simple kingdoms that Thor would snicker at in his early days of being a prince. And T'Challa was here, offering emotional support for him, so it wouldn't be as if he were alone.

Maybe he could find sanctuary in Wakanda from his overlapping grief and regret, and move on with his life. But the dark blonde succumbed to the dark thoughts of what would happen if someone set Wakanda as a target due to his presence in the nation. No doubt, the Asgardian had enemies, but they didn't have to be Wakanda's.

"The last time you welcomed someone like me into your country, it ended badly."

T'Challa acknowledged the comment with a nod and Thor immediately regretted it, especially having given the topic of their conversation not too long ago.

"I didn't mean it like that."

"It's okay, you-"

"No, I meant you welcoming someone like us. T'Challa, you may have superhuman powers, but we were forced with them and we cannot simply give them up. Me, Steve, Bruce...we have targets on our back from the second we are out that door. There are people out there who want what we would wish to give to someone else to be normal for a day. But for all the wrong reasons. I would hate to imagine if I brought the same kind of attention to Wakanda."

T'Challa approached Thor and stood before him with a frown.

"Thor, I made Wakanda's true powers known to the world. We run on one element, and it is the most expensive element in the world. They know where we are on the map, and many have tried but as you can see, before Thanos, we did not fall. I appreciate that you are the God of Thunder, and a king, but I am sure no harm will come of your arrival."

Despite only introducing himself to the Black Panther less than half an hour ago, T'Challa had given him more affirmation than others closer to him had, such as his own brother. It was an offer that seemed impossible to refuse, especially with everything T'Challa had in common with him. He'd have someone to relate to and discuss the days of withdrawn tears and possessing stoic personalities.

With that, Thor shook his hand and smiled as he gazed into T'Challa's eyes, ambitious to see what the future held with him and Wakanda.

"I suppose I accept your offer then."

T'Challa grinned and looked up at the muscular man with grateful eyes.

"I suppose you do."


End file.
